Elections were held in Germany on Sunday to renew the parliament of the German state of Bremen, the smallest of the country’s 16 states: they were won by the Social Democrats, the center-left party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, which the first results give around 29 .5 percent, ahead of the conservatives of the CDU, second with 25.8. However, the elections in the state of Bremen above all certified a significant drop in support for the Greens, who fell from 17.4 percent in the elections 4 years ago to the current 11.8, their worst result in this state since 1999 .
The disappointing result of the Greens was mainly attributed by its leaders to national dynamics: the party has been in government since 2021, allied with the Social Democrats and the liberals of the FDP, and since then it has had to make some unpopular decisions especially on issues to which it is traditionally closer, such as climate and energy. For example, he has received much criticism for a recent law with which the German government will ban the use of heating systems that burn fossil fuels from 2024, which critics say will put too much burden on families.
Furthermore, the party has recently been involved in a scandal over the appointment of the head of the German Energy Agency: the Undersecretary of the Economy, Patrick Graichen, a close ally of the Minister of Energy, was also on the selection committee for this figure. ‘Economics Robert Habeck, who is one of the leaders of the Greens nationwide. The selection had led to the appointment of a close friend of Graichen’s, who was accused of influencing the selection without clarifying his conflict of interest in advance. Eventually the nomination was withdrawn and the selection process restarted.